(Editor’s note: Just so there’s no confusion, I ghost-wrote this for Uma, who was the Renton Reporter’s entry in the…
While it is difficult to look beyond the current economic crisis, with unemployment hovering near double digits and home foreclosures…
There’s been a coup here at the Renton Reporter. Or is that a coop? Oh, that’s that foul fowl. Anyway,…
The call for personal action to save the Earth seems to be falling on more deaf ears. Sales pitches for eco-friendly products and warnings of planetary demise are backfiring. People are tired of hearing them: “green fatigue” is spreading. Suddenly, contentment is growing in our country about the quality of the environment. According to a recent Gallup poll, 46 percent of Americans now rate our ecosystems as excellent or good. That is up from 39 percent a year earlier.
On April 29, 12-year-old Alajawan Brown was shot to death in Skyway. Two months later, on July 1, Curtis John Walker will stand before a judge at his arraignment on a first-degree murder charge.
If he’s convicted, the 35-year-old Walker could get 35 to 45 years in prison, effectively a life sentence. Alajawan is serving a death sentence for no other reason than he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Summer is almost here! The kids are out of school, adults are on vacation and it’s time for outdoor activities like riding bikes and swimming at the lake. However, summer is also the time when our safety is most at risk.
This weekend and beyond, a new crop of high school students will be mounting the stage, mortarboards on heads and…
The name “small business” is invoked regularly to support causes that range from taxes to health care, but who is the proverbial “small business” and why does it matter? Statistics say that nationally small businesses employ just over half of all private sector employers; in the last decade, 70 percent of all new jobs were created by small business. While these numbers are compelling, they don’t tell the whole story.
The Renton Chamber of Commerce held its ninth annual Ahead of the Class Excellence in Education Awards recently. The program pays homage to the crème de la crème of educators in the Renton community — and this year’s eight winners (one was a team of four) were no exception. I am an admitted sap when it comes to teachers and the subject of education in general, but last Thursday’s program really got to me on several levels.
Back in 1990, the Food and Drug Administration required major food producers to label their packages with calorie, fat, carbohydrate and other nutritional information. For many of us, this changed the way we bought groceries. In fact, studies show that 75 percent of people read these labels and, of them, 61 percent changed their purchases based on the information they read.
Let’s not tip-toe around what happened to Alajawan Brown. He was murdered. And someone out there knows who fired that…
Alajawan Brown liked to play football. A couple Thursday’s ago, he took the bus to Walmart to buy some football cleats, using $20 he got from his brother to clean the kitchen.
I can’t imagine the terror and pain Velda K. Mapelli must have felt, if only for an instant, after she was knocked to the ground by a bicyclist late Sunday afternoon on the Cedar River Trail.
If you’re like me, you probably still have questions about the federal healthcare reform bill. Through the media, many of us have heard that pre-existing conditions no longer prevent people from getting or keeping health insurance. Still others may be aware that their children under 26 are now eligible to be covered under their health insurance plan, and that it closes the Medicare Part D “donut hole” for seniors.
Thousands have driven by the WACAP adoption agency’s
offices on South Second Street, probably giving it little thought or more likely, not even noticing it.
April is Volunteer Month and I want to take this opportunity to celebrate the spirit of volunteerism that defines our community. Volunteers continue to make a big difference; last year more than 4,000 volunteers contributed more than 60,000 hours of service to the Renton community. Their contribution and their personal commitment to serve make our community unique and special. Some of our volunteers have served for more than 35 years.
The furor over the national National Health Care Reform Act has got to stop. Next-to-nothing has been implemented yet and parts of the bill are being challenged by attorney generals from a number of states. Yet, things are getting out of hand.
The FBI on Tuesday arrested a Selah (Yakima County) man for threatening to kill Sen. Patty Murray, who voted for the health-care bill.
The state’s Constitution has this to say about public education:
1. “It is the paramount duty of the state to make ample provision for the education of all children residing within its borders, without distinction or preference on account of race, color, caste, or sex.” (Article IX, Section 1)
